Dad assumed to have been murdered had actually drunkenly passed out on his own knife

A UK dad accidentally killed himself by drunkenly passing out on a knife in his bag.

Robert Brown, 57, was initially assumed to have been murdered when he was found slumped over on a blood-soaked bench on a canal footpath early Aug. 1 in Northampton — with three people even being arrested and later released, according to the Northampton Chronicle and Echo.

But investigators eventually realized that Brown had actually just “rolled onto a knife carried in his backpack” while in a deep, drunken sleep, according to a court hearing into his death.

Robert Brown, 57, died on a riverside bench from severe blood loss. Northamptonshire Police / SWNS

The single-edged, five-inch blade penetrated the bag and all three layers of Brown’s clothing and slashed his arm — leaving him to slowly bleed out as he remained asleep on the bench.

Local police initially arrested three people suspected in Brown’s death, but they were later released. Northamptonshire Telegraph/ SWNS

Brown struggled with alcohol dependency, making him more susceptible to blood loss, experts told the hearing.

Northamptonshire Police eventually dropped the murder investigation in February 2026 — six months after it was launched — announcing that the injury was “likely to have been unintentionally self-inflicted”.

It was ruled an accidental death this week, with

Senior Coroner Anne Pember called it a “tragic accident” Thursday as it was officially ruled to be an accidental death.